... this "classic" version of the site will be taken down on may 1st, 2015; please go ahead and make your final selections from the generous closeouts campaign & please updateall of your bookmarks to the address above for any & allnew release, restock, and auction activity ...

november 2010 release ; interesting, challenging disc of discrete “happy accident” realizations of compositions from wandelweiser’s michael pisaro & improviser taku sugimoto(discrete as in pisaro takes one of the stereo channels, sugimoto the other) recorded on different continents then combinedw/o each players’ knowledge of the others’ performance ...

erstwhile press release...

michaelpisaro/takusugimoto - 2seconds / b minor / wave

erstwhile 061total time: 60:04

michaelpisaro and takusugimoto are not generally closely associated, but have quite a bit in common. both are composers whose primary instrument is the guitar, both have close ties to the wandelweiser collective(pisaro is a longtime member), and both have pursued their unique paths without much concern as to how the rest of the world will perceive them. 2seconds/b minor/wave marks their first collaboration, but these aesthetic overlaps allow their independently conceivedrecordedparts to fit together remarkably naturally.

michaelpisaro has been associated with the wandelweiser collective since just after their formation in the earlynineties. the departure points for his music were john cage's ideas of the durational frame, ben johnston's work with alternate tunings, christian wolff's opening of the relationship between composition andperformance, and alvin lucier and james tenney's use of scientific hypotheses to exploresound phenomena. pisaro has spent much of the last decade making field recordings, and occasionally using them in his work. much of his recentcomposition, and especially the work with his primary collaborator, percussionist greg stuart, has concerned the massing and then the spatialization of sound to create 'homemade' environments. pisaro lives in southern california, teaching at the california institute of the arts, running the experimental musicworkshop, and curating his own recently launched recording imprint, gravity wave. this is his firstrecording for erstwhile.

currently sugimoto's interest focuses on composition and its performance, rather than improvisation. with taku unami and masahiko okura, sugimotoorganizes the almost-monthly chamber music concert at loop-line and the irregular takusugimotocomposition series at kid ailack art hall, both in tokyo. he runs the label slub music, which in addition to sugimoto's own recordings has releasedcds by otherjapanesemusicians as well as wandelweisermainstays radu malfatti and antoine beuger. he has just issued the firstfour discs compiling the abovementioned composition series, a strongstatement on twodoublecds documenting his work over the past few years. this is his secondrecording forerstwhileafter 2000's seminal the world turned upside down, and he also took part in the amplify 2002festival in tokyo and is featured on the box set of that event.

2seconds/b minor/wave is a long distance collaboration, with each musiciancomposing and recording their own parts, before hearing what the other had done. pulse, pitch and wave were the three areas they wanted to explore on the threepieces, and loose rules/guidelines were agreed on beforehand, as follows: '2seconds' was a unit of pulse, either as a basic unit or a point of departure; 'b minor' was a key, with sugimoto playing harmony and pisaroplaying melody: and 'wave', with no further details, simply whatever that word brought to mind. this was the extent of the specific discussion between the two, and thus the entirely fluid melding of the results is a testament to their deep understanding of the other's aesthetic/s. yuko zama's intuitively empathetic design is a perfect symbiotic fit for the music contained within.

since the earlynineties, vienna-based radumalfatti has been investigating the edges of ultraminimalism in both his composed and improvisedwork. on imaoto, he is joined by empathetic explorer klausfilipto create an instant classic.

radumalfatti has been a major presence in the european free improv scene since the earlyseventies. he's been a member of such stellar bands as the brotherhood of breath, the london jazz composers' orchestra, and the king ubu orchestra, as well as countless small groups. malfatti's recent focus on developing a uniquestyle of superspare, tranquil music led him to join the wandelweiser collective, a group of like-minded composers, in 1994. since 2006, malfatti has been releasingrecordings spanning the past12yearsof his compositions on his own b-boim label, which cumulatively are one of the important bodies of work of recenttimes. imaoto is his secondrelease for erstwhile, following 2001's superb and influentialdach.

klausfilip has been involved in the experimental music world since the earlynineties in a wide range of capacities. he invented the open-source software lloopp, which is used by many prominent laptop improvisers, including christian fennesz and christof kurzmann. filip only has a handful of releases, most notably aluk(w/toshi nakamura), los glissandinos - stand clear (w/kai fagaschinski), and building excess (w/malfatti, mattin, and dean roberts).filip's music has become increasinglyminimalin recentyears, searching for the limits of perception, in loudness and movement. imaoto is his firstrelease for erstwhile.

malfatti andfilip have performed a handful of duo concerts over the years, with the first in 2003. in 2006, they played a remarkable set in maria chavez's houndstooth store in nyc, a very memorable show for the couple of dozen listeners in attendance as well as for the musicians themselves. in october2008, they spent a day at amann studios and recorded the twopieces that make up imaoto. the results are undeniably gorgeous, musical, and impeccably recorded. the ultraminimalist aesthetic of the music is echoed in yuko zama's sparse design.

this is probably the most beautifulradumalfatti's trombone has ever sounded on arecording. it is deepbut notheavy, attaining, in christoph amann's studio, a very personal, nearlyvocal presence. klausfilipworks miracles of intuition with his sine tones, seemingly knowing the precise harmonic answer even before the question is asked. the two are exploring a world of hidden contours and curves, quietly, step-by-step; never hurried, never tedious.

august 2009 release ; complete transcription of keith& sachiko’s set at the “amplify 2008: light” festival, plus a series of three additionalpieces recorded at kid ailack art hall during the same stretch ...

keithrowe and sachiko m are two of the most pivotal and crucial musicians in experimental music today. contactmarks their first meeting as a duo, consisting of their complete unedited sessions, both live and studio.

keithrowe was in the forefront of the initial wave of european free improvisation, co-founding the amm collective in 1965 and originating the tabletop guitar. the tabletop guitar has remained at the center of his ever-evolving table of electronics and gadgets ever since, becoming increasinglystripped down and minimal in recentyears. having mostly performed within amm until the late90's, he's since been involved in a wide range of projects, including a slew of the most prominent erstwhilereleases. he's the cornerstonemusician of the label, and his wide range of releases over the last decade stands with the strongest bodies of work of the last century in improvised music. contact contains the thirdof his fourlive sets from the amplify 2008: lightfestival in tokyo, with two previously released in the erstlive series and the fourth to come later this year, a duo with toshimaru nakamura, completing the tetralogy.

sachiko m is best known for her innovative use of the sampler, extracting pure, piercing sine waves from the device's built-in test tonesand forging an original and much-imitated sound. more recently, she has expanded her palette through the use of contact microphones. sachiko has worked extensively as a solo artist, as well as in groups such as cosmos, filament, and i.s.o., and in duo with toshimaru nakamura. she shared the 2003 prix ars electronica with ami yoshida and utah kawasaki, and founded the groundbreaking amoebic label. this is her sixthrecord forerstwhile, and she has an erstsolorelease in the works for 2010.

rowe and sachiko have primarily travelled parallel paths over the last decade, occasionally intersecting. they both recorded crucial duocds with toshi nakamura in 2000-2001, firstsachiko with 'do', then keith soon after with 'weather sky'. in 2004, they both took part in the 230minute long quartet set documented on erstlive 005, along with nakamura and otomo yoshihide. inseptember2008, rowe playedfour sets in three nights in the amplify 2008: lightfestival intokyo. the festival marked rowe's fourthtrip to japan in his 40+ year career, and the primary purpose behind his visit was to record in duo for the firsttime with sachiko.

contact contains the full unedited sessions from these twowidely admiredmusicians who have deeply respected each other for the last decade. the twocds include the full amplify 2008: lightperformance, along with three additional piecesrecorded in the same roomtwodayslater. contactcovers a range of approaches over itstwohour length, with the common factor being the always impeccable touch of these two gifted artists. the outside three panels of the digipak are a white on black drip painting from rowe, one of a series of six, two others of which can be seen on the cds themselves.

just a superb set from the penultimate eai “super-group” of oren ambarchi, christian fennesz, toshimaru nakamura, and keith rowe; each invited to the table on account of their prior association with the electric guitar (with nakamura, the wrench-in-the mechanics that he is, defaulting here to his main instrument; the “no-input mixing board.”)

moments of fennesz-ian wash and bits of oren’s bass-heavy sine-bursts peek out from between the cracks, but for the most part the set is a veritable festival of micro-detail; those fond of rowe and nakamura’s duo work will be in familiar ground, albeit with a much fuller range and a near-constant ground-hum of tonal blur.

of the 50-odd erstwhile titles yet, this is most likely the best bet for getting your initial toe wet... the others will come naturally ...

keithrowe, orenambarchi, christian fennesz and toshimarunakamura are four of the most prominent and influentialmusicians in experimental music today, each with extensive discographies and distinctive styles. in mid-2004, they formed the four gentlemen of the guitar(4g), and played a series of shows in europe and canada, three of which are contained on cloud. the underlying concept of 4g is to unite four artists who each began their musicalexplorations as guitarists, keeping that mindset as a crucial underpinning of their work as they've each exploredincreasinglyabstract territory, both with and without guitars.

rowe's history has been well documented at this point. having mostly performed within amm until the late90's, he's since been involved in a wide range of projects, including a slew of the most prominent erstwhilereleases. he's the cornerstonemusician for the label, and the 4g grouping was his idea.

ambarchi is making his erstwhiledebut(except for the 7guitar disc in the amplify 2002 box set). born in sydney in 1969, he has been performing live since 1986. his recentwork as a solo artist on touch is very well known and respected, and he's been working with rowe in various small groupings since 2000. ambarchi is also co-organiser of the what is music? festival, australia's premier annual showcase of local and international experimental music.fennesz, known to a wider audience for his studio-constructed records like endless summer and venice, is also a superb collaborative improviser, as documented on projects like fenno'berg (w/ jim o'rourke and pita), wrapped islands (w/ polwechsel), live at the lu (w/ rowe), and erstlive 004(w/ sachiko m, otomo yoshihide, and peter rehberg).

since 1998, nakamura has been exploring the possibilities of his "no-input mixing board" in contexts ranging from solo to collaborations with rowe, günter müller, sachiko m, andrea neumann, john butcher and sean meehan. nakamura was a prominent presence throughout the amplify 2002 box set, appearing on five of the sevencds, an integral part of the good morning good night and erstlive 005releases, and will be releasing the much-anticipated follow up to the highly acclaimed weather sky cd with rowe in early2006.there have been two larger group releases featuring three of these fourmusicians, afternoon tea (ritornell) has rowe, ambarchi and fennesz, and the 7guitar disc on the amplify 2002 box has rowe, ambarchi and nakamura, but the 4gproject is the firsttime all four have performed together. cloud contains threeperformances(from vand'ouevre, paris and victoriaville) from their seven city tour in may/june2004, totalling over twohours of music. the widely differing aesthetics of the fourmusicians meld fluidly, forming hovering, delicate masses of sound. the packaging meshes rowe's striking cover painting with friederike paetzold's eyecatching design.

|| the four gentlemen of the guitar ||

at the centre of this project is the guitar, perhaps the world's most ubiquitous instrument. here we are looking at its extended possibilities - that is to say rather than summing up guitar-ness in a picasso-like way, we would be more interested in mondrianesque extensions.

christian and toshi, although both guitarplayers, have performed in public mostly on instruments that have become physical and musical extensions of the guitar. in my case, along with oren, we preserved the basic form of the guitar, obviously exploring its "non-guitarlike" possibilities, but always maintaining its essential "guitar-ness".

how might a japanese, an australian, an austrian and an englishman with very differentmusical and artistic personalities explore in real-time the world's most globalinstrument, incorporating boomerang loop stations, digital effects, mixing boards, computers etc.?

the quartet form "at first was a medium that allowed four gentlemen amateurs to converse musically"*, and from haydn's time became the appropriate medium that produced music of the deepestpersonal expression and contemplative profundity.so here we have four gentlemen, the guitar, a conversation between the analog and the digital, the north and the south.

gregkelley: trumpetjasonlescalleet: tape loops, computerover the last few years, the boston/cambridge improv scene has emerged as potentially the most exciting in the us. gregkelley and jasonlescalleet are two of the most compelling figures in this scene.kelley, a stunningly originaltrumpeter, graduated from the peabody conservatory of music in 1995. he has since garnered much praise for his unique vocabulary of extendedtechniques and timbral manipulation. in 1998, kelley began a pattern of dedicated touring, performing throughout the united states, europe, and japan. these travels have led to numerous collaborations, including ones with anthony braxton, paul lovens, keiji haino, eddie prevost, kevin drumm and john butcher. kelley is best known for his work in the duo nmperign with bhob rainey and for his breathtaking solo record on meniscus, simply titled trumpet.lescalleet has been working with differentstyles of music for over a decade, focusing on the use of tapes for much of that period. in live performance, he uses reel-to-reel tape decks to explore the textures of low fidelity analogsounds and the natural phenomena of old tape and obsolete technology. he blends layers of ambienttapeloops, moving through levels of silence and white noise, all transformed through cheap microphones and trashed speakers. for his studiowork, lescalleet uses the computer as a processing and organizational tool. he has worked with such wide-ranging artists as francisco lopez, donald miller, achim wollscheid, and john hudak.kelley and lescalleetfirst met in early1998. the following year, lescalleet joined nmperign for the first in a series of collaborations culminating in the release of a split cd‘in which the silent-partner director is no longer able to make his point to the industrial dreamer’(intransitive). eventually, the duoproject documented here materialized: the outcome of threeyears of enthusiastic aesthetic discussions, performances containing near silences one night or (literal) showers of sparks on another, countless phone calls and emails, and endless listening. forlorn green is the end result of fourrecordingdates, two live collaborations, one recording of kelley solo, and one recording of kelley under lescalleet's direction, employing uncommon recording equpment and unconventional techniques. forlorn green merges a remarkable variety of neo-industrial rumbles and incisive interruptions, all flawlessly fused and integrated, creating a lo-fi concréte masterpiece.

keithrowe: tabletop guitar, electronicstoshimarunakamura: no-input mixing boardkeithrowe and toshimarunakamura are two of the most important musicians in the world today. fans of each other’s work, they began to collaborate in early2001, and have created in weather sky a timeless work of art.rowe, who is best known for his groundbreaking work with amm (the seminal improvising collective he co-founded in 1965 with eddie prévost and lou gare), also currently leads the music in movementelectronic orchestra, an all-star group featuring many of europe's premier electronicmusicians. over the last few years, rowe has also been pursuing numerous projects outside of his two primary projects, releasing superb records with burkhard beins (grain, on zarek), günter müller/taku sugimoto (the world turned upside down, on erstwhile), as well as his solo work, most recently documented on the difficult to digest but very strong harsh (grob).nakamura plays the "no-input mixing board", connecting the input of the board to the output, then manipulating the resultant feedback. since 1998, he's been exploring the possibilities of his instrument in contexts ranging from solo to collaborations with sachiko m, andrea neumann, and the duoproject repeat with drummer jason kahn. nakamura is also a co-founder of the improvisation meeting at bar aoyama, a monthly concert series in tokyo, which recently changed its name and location to meeting at off site, and has toured europe quite frequently over the last few years, to widespread acclaim.weather sky was recorded in saint-etienne, france in june2001, and consists of three live improvisations totalling 73minutes. both musiciansalmost entirely sublimate their egos throughout, creating a pure abstractfeedback, with occasional flecks of sound jumping to the foreground, coalescing to produce a sense of eternity.

otomoyoshihide: electronicsnorbertmöslang: cracked everyday-electronicsandyguhl: cracked everyday-electronicsotomoyoshihide has explored the nature of sound in many different ways during his career. otomo formed the hugely influential group ground zero in 1990, leading the project through numerous incarnations until its conclusion in 1998, as documented on the epic last concert (amoebic). over the last few years, otomo has become increasingly interested in minimal wave-based electronics, as heard in his filament and i.s.o projects. other projects which he is currently involved in include his new jazz quintet, who play standards from composers such as ornette coleman, gerry mulligan and eric dolphy, as well as original tunes by otomo, all refracted through his unique sensibilities. otomo has also composed numerous soundtracks for movies, and has written numerous articles and essays for japanese music publications.swiss duovoice crack(norbertmöslang and andyguhl) have been playing together since 1972. in 1977, they released the then underappreciated deepvoices lp(fmp, reissued on cd by urthona), which they created largely with acousticinstruments. since 1983, they've been exclusively working with "cracked everyday-electronics", modifying and/or abusing numerous small household machines in order to produce extreme, uniquenoises. voice crack's current projects include their longstanding collaborative partnership with borbetomagus, poire_z with günter müller and erik m., as well as their solo work, well documented with such superb recentreleases as below beyond above (uhlang) and shock_late(entenpfuhl). they also have a collaborarative disc in the works with jérôme noetinger and lionel marchetti, which will be released on grob in 2001.bits, bots and signs documents the long overdue first meeting of these pioneers, recorded in march2000 in st. gallen, switzerland, although as möslang says, "from the beginning, it was as if we had played together for a long time." the threemusiciansgenerate gently pulsing rumbles, piercing whistles and lingering whines, fusing these varied sounds into a series of expansive panoramas. the striking cover drawing was created by swiss artist alex hanniman.

deanroberts: guitar, electronics and percussionwernerdafeldecker: guitar, electronics and percussiondeanroberts and wernerdafeldecker seem unlikely collaborators at first glance.roberts, who originally hails from new zealand, began his career delving into guitardrones and feedback, both in the trio thela and on his own, under the name white winged moth. he founded the label formacentric disk in order to document a wider range of his work, and releasedfourprojects in twoyears. in 1998, he began working with the influentialgerman label mille plateaux, who put out his much acclaimed all cracked medias, and earlier this year, and the black moths play the grand cinema, on their more experimental sublabel ritornell.dafeldecker, a lifelong resident of vienna, is probably best known for being an integral member of the improv supergroup polwechsel, as well as for founding and running the influential label durian. he's composed numerous pieces for various classical ensembles, and also appears on tworecent notable cds, printer (durian), and martin siewert's komfort 2000(charhizma). originallyprimarily a bassist, dafeldecker has been working more with guitar and electronicsrecently, both of which he plays to great effect on aluminium.aluminium was recorded during a marathon studio session in vienna in april, and was brilliantly mastered by tim barnes. both musicians play guitar and electronics, along with occasional percussion on a hi-hat placed between them. on the firsttrack, dafeldecker's sine wave electronics intersect with roberts' rough guitartextures, priming the listener's aural palette for the marathon track which follows. this halfhour long piece is a atmospheric exploration fusing the legacy of amm with the spirit of rock and roll.